


Beta Reader Appreciation Day Tributes

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: General, Multi-Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2005-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3744452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>May 15, 2005 </p><p>The First Annual Beta Readers Appreciation Day.</p><p>Do you appreciate your Beta Readers?  Put your tributes to your betas here, so everyone can find them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. For the Machete Beta Circle - Tanaqui, Marta, Lady Aranel and Cheryl

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

I am a very fortunate person in that I have some of the best beta  
readers in the business commenting on my writing (your mileage may vary  
on this issue). I came to this list as a new and very scared author  
about a year and half ago, and I know I have improved as a writer  
ten-fold due to the willingness of people to take time to comment on my  
work. I want to thank Tanaqui, Marta, Lady Aranel, Cheryl, Amanda,  
Chathol-Lin, and the many other people who made we welcome, gave me  
comments and made me feel accepted and at home here.

**You are the best! - Gwynnyd**

**Quest for the Perfect FanFic**

**Outline**

I often feel like Frodo.  Ideas I thought ‘safe and secret’ can be hidden no longer. I step out to see if I can subdue them to my will, and get rid of them once and for all.

I think the journey hard, beset by wraiths and fears, pierced by plot issues.  Bright detours into research lure me. Friends materialize out of the fog, pointing out logical flaws – ‘silly writer, the fog has to come between the wraiths and the piercing’.  They are right.  I trek onward, shivering and wounded.  I know this task is mine. I carry it forward.

**First Draft**

Leaving Rivendell, that haven of the thought-out plot, I slog day by day. One word follows another, scenes strung together like nameless days in the wilds of Eriador.  This is no place to walk alone.  I am grateful for the knowledge given that I did not have to seek, and the nourishment that comes when I am hungry for feedback.  I know the destination, if not the landmarks. Companions see that I do not go too far astray.

Balrog!  The black pit of unworkable characterizations traps me.

I find the way out and can rest for a time at last.

**Second Draft – part one**

There is time to rest while the beta readers make their comments, but I know I still have a long way to go.  I cannot wait, so I make a few changes as I float towards the journey’s end bringing my betas along as the river flows south. 

Rauros.  With beta help I avoid the falls, but I know what I must do and where I must go. I will make this idea work, alone if need be. Though it pains me, some plot is trimmed.  I know that story lurks elsewhere. 

Betas amalgamate into Sam. The hardest part begins.

**Second Draft – part two**

I thought the first part hard, but nothing to the wastes before me now. The nuances must be right, the characters believable, and the plot logical.  Without your support I would have given up long ago.  The tiny bits of encouragement, “oh, great phrase,” can spur a chapter of rewrite through the “I want a tone of voice here’ and “this needs more!” 

I know you stint your own writing to give me feedback more quickly, and this touches me more than I can say, because all my words are focused on my goal. And the volcano looms near now.

**Second Draft – part three**

One-handed, I hang over the abyss and my words float precariously on the surface of the flow, ready to dissolve into nothingness. They are all crap. I write only junk no one wants to read anyway.  I will let go and it will be all over.

“Reach!”

I look up to see my beta’s hand held down to me and I despair because I am a book!canon geek and I have slipped into movie!verse, which just proves I can’t write, and better that it all end now.

“Don’t you dare let go.  This is good!”

Really? 

“Dammit!  Reach!”

Up.  Done!

**Revision**

I am done!  The story is complete.  Finished. And even I can appreciate that it is not bad.  The loose ends are tied up.  The plot has no holes. The characterizations are spot on.  Good.  My betas clap and cheer and Frodo at Cormallen could not have felt more proud of his accomplishment.

I make my weary way homeward, and my betas show me places where the text needs to be scoured.  A word overused here.  An infelicitous phrasing there.  These sentences would be much more powerful in a different order. 

I am changed.  I will never be the same.

**Review**

There is a time for all things to end, passing from one stage to the next.  One more tweak would be too many.

I face the future with confidence.  I am sad to leave this process, and these betas behind, but it is time to take this story to the West.  The Undying Lands of Good Review Comments are before me and my betas are left behind on the shore.

I close my eyes and savor the moment. 

I am back at Bag End and Frodo holds an idea in his hands. 

Goody!  This time I get to be Sam!

 

 


	2. The Pen and the Sword

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May 15, 2005

Pretend that we know with certainty that Bilbo did compose the poem...

* * *

"Well, what about this?" Bilbo cleared his throat, then launched into his poem. His audience listened silently, face expressionless.

"What do you think?" the hobbit asked when he had finished.

Aragorn folded his hands in his lap and replied, "I think the form is at war with the content. Bilbo, why must it be an elvish meter?"

With a sigh, Bilbo replied, "Well, I suppose I want it to stick, if you understand me, and elvish forms stick."

"Ah, but not every verse that speaks to the heart speaks elvish," Aragorn chided, rising. "But now I must bid you farewell and good luck, for I'm to meet Arwen not ten minutes hence." With that, he strode off, whistling a familiar tune that had Bilbo frowning, trying to place it.

And then he began to laugh as he put words to the melody:

_The Road goes ever on and on_  
Down from the door where it began.  
Now far ahead the Road has gone,  
And I must follow, if I can...

Picking up his pen once more, he raised it to his brow, as it were a sword, in salute to absent Dúnedain, and bent again to work, his spirits restored.

* * *

For all those who have held my hand through many a slashfic or policed grammar or prodded me to fix this or that in any fic—your help is much appreciated!


	3. For the resources geeks: Deep in the stacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May 15, 2005

A cough. Gandalf looks up from a scroll, wondering if it is just the dust of the archives, or a diffident call for attention. The young man’s gaze is fixed on him. “What is it, Faramir?”

“This part here,” Faramir frowns and tips the book so Gandalf can see. “I am unsure of the meaning.” Gandalf also creases his brow. Faramir flushes and stammers. “I am sorry to be a nuisance….”

“Nonsense!” Gandalf holds out his hand for the book. “Learn what you can, when you can, from whomever is willing to teach. Now, let me see what it says…”


End file.
